A Day in the Life of Optiv Cyber Security Superheroes: Sameer Hiremath

September 22, 2017

Growing the Global Footprint to India and Beyond

Sameer Hiremath, Vice President and Country General Manager, Optiv India

Deemed the “Silicon Valley of India,” Bangalore is a major hub for many of the top multinational information technology firms, software companies, and research and development startups. Among the heavy hitters putting down roots on the Mysore plateau are Google, Dell, Accenture, Oracle, IBM, Infosys, Wipro—and the list is growing. It is here that Optiv is developing a strong presence in this burgeoning global marketplace as it expands its international footprint to reach clients worldwide. “Optiv India” is being led by Sameer Hiremath, a talented engineer and IAM consultant, who joined the Optiv team with the 2016 acquisition of Advancive Technologies.

The successful partnership with Advancive has allowed Optiv to expand its cyber security expertise and offerings outside of North America, and provide new and innovative IAM services and solutions to clients across borders in the EMEIA countries. As vice president and country general manager of Optiv India, Sameer has directed the build-out with great success. Sameer explains, “The IAM expertise and skill sets that Advancive shared with Optiv were very complementary. Joining forces with Optiv has created a much broader set of offerings for our clients.” He explained, “For example, Optiv had SailPoint expertise while Advancive brought proficiency in other products, such RSA/Ping and CA SiteMinder.” New offerings under Sameer’s charge include services such as managed IAM, SailPoint implementations and a brand new, state-of-the-art security operations center (SOC).

Proud of Your Growth

Sameer was “bitten by the security bug” at a very young age. Majoring in computer science and engineering, he was fascinated by a school project he worked on around encryption and secure communications. He traveled to the U.S. to complete a master’s degree at Villanova University, and went to work for a security company, where he developed software for single-sign-on/web access management and became more and more focused on identity and access management. Sameer returned to India to work for a software company in the identity governance space, which was later acquired by RSA. Coming aboard U.S.-based Advancive in 2012, Sameer took on the task of starting and running the India operations to implement a hybrid delivery model and follow-the-sun approach to support its clients in India, Hong Kong, Macau and Australia.

Proud of Our Impact

The proudest accomplishment for Sameer and the Optiv team in India has been the planning and completion of a fully outsourced next-gen security operations center developed for a large Fortune 500 company. Optiv India mobilized a team of skilled engineers and solution architects who had operations up and running for that client within a remarkable three-month time frame. Staffed by 24x7 SOC technicians, this center uses best-of-breed cutting-edge tools and technologies based on user behavior analytics, big data analytics and machine learning algorithms for automation. In Sameer’s words, “There were definitely plenty of challenges, but looking back all the hard work, perseverance and dedication of the team has paid off. We have a very satisfied client, and have consistently exceeded all of our key performance indicators for the SOC.”